BETWEEN THE LINES

Napolitano 'failed miserably'

Joseph Farah is founder, editor and chief executive officer of WND. He is the author or co-author of 13 books that have sold more than 5 million copies, including his latest, "The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians, and the End of the Age." Before launching WND as the first independent online news outlet in 1997, he served as editor in chief of major market dailies including the legendary Sacramento Union.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano finally admitted the system she presides over failed miserably in preventing a known Muslim terrorist, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to board NWA 253 and actually begin the detonation of a homemade bomb designed to kill nearly 300 on board the Detroit-bound flight on Christmas Day.

Earlier, she maintained “the system worked.”

Keep in mind Napolitano directs a $50 billion agency funded with one main purpose – to prevent these kinds of terrorist attacks on the American homeland.

Let’s diagnose the latest incident.

The terrorist was reported to the U.S. State Department as a potential threat by his own father. Yet, he was permitted to board a U.S.-bound airliner because his name did not appear on the no-fly list.

Once again, government proved it cannot be trusted to guard the American people.

Had alert passengers not subdued the attacker in this case, the airliner might have been destroyed.

So what is government doing about its failure?

It’s making airline passengers more uncomfortable. In future flights, passengers will be forbidden in the last hour from having anything on their laps – books, blankets, sweaters, etc. They will also be banned from standing up.

In other words, the very thing that prevented a disaster on flight 253, passengers standing up and taking down the terrorist, would become illegal under the new rules.

Make sense?

It does in the wacky world of Janet Napolitano – a woman, you might remember, who was profiling “right-wing extremists,” not Islamic terrorists, when she took over her position earlier this year.

Now, who do you think is a bigger threat to the lives and safety and civil rights of American citizens – a grandma with a sweater on her lap or Janet Napolitano?

It’s time for this ideologically driven nitwit to go.

We don’t need one more American dying needlessly because of her incompetence and negligence.

You and I have to take off our shoes every time we enter an airport security checkpoint these days because eight Christmases ago shoe bomber Richard Reid tried to blow up a U.S.-bound plane using the same methodology used by Abdulmutallab.

This guy was on a terrorist watch list. His name had been shared with all the agencies watching for terrorists. But his name was not added to the no-fly list. In fact, Abdulmutallab was in possession of a two-year visa to visit the U.S.

In other words, Janet Napolitano’s bureaucracy literally rolled out the red carpet for this maniac.

Her idea of “security” is making American citizens more miserable every time there is a terrorist attack.

Her idea of “security” is demonizing and profiling “conservatives,” returning military veterans and Christians.

Her idea of “security” is making more rules and regulations determined terrorists can easily subvert.

It’s time to turn up the heat on Janet Napolitano.

The only real “security” she cares about is her own job security.

It’s time for her to go.

And it’s time to rethink the whole notion of a giant, unaccountable and incompetent bureaucracy known as the Department of Homeland Security that is accomplishing nothing of any value – certainly not $50 billion worth.

If they can’t connect the very clear dots that were obvious with a Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, then they won’t prevent the next terror attack.

If a father trying to turn in his own son can’t get the attention of the Department of Homeland Security, then the agency is hopeless.